Accident Central

If you have a serious accident in the county, chances are that you’ll wind up in the emergency room at Ventura County Medical Center.

“Most significant traumas come here,” said Dr. Nat Baumer, director of the ER for 17 years.

The county doesn’t have an official trauma center, “which is extremely expensive,” Baumer said.

Level 1 trauma centers, such as Los Angeles County-USC and UCLA medical centers, require not only major residency training programs but also surgical specialists--including trauma, vascular and cardio-thoracic surgeons--in-house 24 hours a day.

County ER--whose residency program is associated with the UCLA School of Medicine--has specialists on call, and “they can be in surgery within half an hour,” Baumer said.

The 6,000-square-foot facility also serves as a trauma referral center for the county, dispatching emergency cases to other hospitals. Cardiac patients, for instance, are sent to Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura.

COUNTY’S HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOMS

* Community Memorial Hospital--147 N. Brent St., Ventura (652-5051).

* Los Robles Regional Medical Center--215 W. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks (379-5435).

* Ojai Valley Community Hospital--1306 Maricopa Highway, Ojai (646-1401).

* St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital--2309 Antonio Ave., Camarillo (389-5810).

* St. John’s Regional Medical Center--1600 N. Rose Ave., Oxnard (988-2663).

* Santa Paula Memorial Hospital--825 N. 10th St. (525-7171).

* Simi Valley Hospital--2975 Sycamore Drive (527-2727).

* Ventura County Medical Center--3291 Loma Vista Road, Ventura (652-6165).